When I talked about all the good cooks in the Denny family and shared my photos for Superbowl Party Food, right away people started requesting the recipe for this salad my sister Sandee made. Sandee gave me the recipe over the phone, and then I used all cabbage (no carrots) and left out the crunchy ramen noodles to make the salad a low-carb recipe, but I'll tell you what to do if you want to duplicate her salad more closely.

Either way you make it, Sandee's Sensational Asian Salad with Chicken and Cabbage is a delicious salad that's crunchy and flavorful, perfect for lunch or even as a side dish to grilled meat or fish.

Trim the visible fat and tendons from two boneless, skinless chicken breasts. (I save the scraps to make chicken stock.) Poach the chicken in water with a little poultry seasoning for flavor. Cook chicken until it's firm to the touch, about 20 minutes, then drain and let cool.

Sandee's dressing recipe used the seasoning packet from a package of chicken-flavored ramen noodles. These noodles do have MSG, and after I wrote about MSG for BlogHer, I've been convinced it's safe. If you don't want to use the ramen noodle packet, I'd substitute a little bit of a natural chicken soup base like the Better Than Bouillon Organic chicken base in the photo.

Stir together the Ramen packet or soup base, rice vinegar, Splenda, Stevia in the Raw, or sugar, salt, and pepper, and then whisk in the oil.

Sandee used coleslaw mix to make her salad, which has a bit of added carrot, but I wanted this salad to be phase one so I just used fresh cabbage and chopped it by hand.

Add sliced green onions to the chopped cabbage or coleslaw mix.

By now the chicken will be cool enough to dice it into smallish pieces.

Mix the diced chicken into the cabbage/green onions, add dressing until salad is as wet as you prefer, and toss to combine.

Then add the toasted almonds and sesame seeds into the salad and toss again. (This is when you would add the packet of crushed dry ramen noodles if you're using it like Sandee did.) Season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper and serve.

Trim all visible fat and tendons from chicken breasts. Then fill a small frying pan with water, whisk in poultry seasoning, add chicken breasts and cook at a very low simmer until chicken is firm to the touch and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken and let cool.

While chicken cooks, mix together rice vinegar, Splenda or sugar, chicken ramen packet or chicken soup base, salt, and pepper, the whisk in the oil, one tablespoon at a time. Taste dressing to see if you want a little more vinegar, and when it's flavored to your liking set aside to let the flavors blend.

As soon as chicken is cool, dice into small pieces (less than 1/2 inch square) and add to cabbage mixture. Add dressing until the salad is as wet as you prefer, then toss to combine. (You may not need all the dressing.)

In a large dry frying pan, toast the almonds over low heat, about 90 seconds, or until almonds start to be fragrant. Add sesame seeds and toast about 60 seconds more, or until nuts and seeds are barely starting to brown.

Add toasted almonds and sesame seeds to salad, toss again to combine, season with salt and fresh-ground black pepper, and serve.

Made with all cabbage (no carrots), using Splenda or Stevia, and leaving out the crushed ramen noodles, this salad would be approved for any phase of the South Beach Diet and suitable for most low-carb diet plans. If you used the coleslaw mix but still used Splenda and left out the ramen noodles, it would still be a pretty good South Beach Diet friendly choice, since there isn't much carrot in that packaged coleslaw mix.

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you. Or if you're a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

More Cabbage Salad Recipes You Might Like:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)

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That looks delicious and perfect for a potluck, because most cabbage salads taste better the longer they sit with their dressing. I can see how the ramen noodles would add some welcome crunch, so maybe I'd have to sneak a few on top for garnish!

I have made this salad for years and I sometimes brown the ramen noodles with the almonds to give it even more of a crunch. I have used peanuts or cashews when I did not have almonds and sometimes I throw in some sunflower seeds just because they are good. Its also good with chinese pork or left over turkey.

See, this is exactly the kind of recipe I would see at a potluck and dive right into. I love this kind of thing but, because I don't cook Asian much, I don't know how to make. I love these kinds of dishes. I'm printing this one out!

I found your website a few months ago but didn't add it to my favorites until today. I just wasn't ready to make a commitment to "healthy" cooking and that lifestyle. I LOVE to cook, and LOVE to eat. Lately, I have been feeling really lousy and had a dream that I need to change something or I would regret it. So today I remembered your blog and found it again, and put you on my FAVORITES list!! The food you have is just what I'm looking for--and the best part is, everything looks TASTY! It looks like I'll still get to enjoy my food. Thank you kindly for being a wealth of information and a support (even without you knowing). Congratulations on your success. :)

This recipe looks great - you could even substitute Shirataki noodles for the Ramen Noodles. Shirataki noodles are made from yam flour and tofu and have only 20 calories and 3 grams of carbs per serving. They also have 2 g of fiber per serving and they are gluten free. I just discovered them and they are really good and a great alternative to pasta.

I feel strongly that everyone should make their own food choices, so I'm not going to publish comments that are critical of ingredients I choose to use. Obviously I wouldn't be using Splenda if I thought it was harmful. If other people feel differently, then they shouldn't use it, especially since the recipe says "Sugar or Splenda."

Great recipe except for the Ramen noodles. They are one of the last ingredients I would add in a recipe for more reasons than one. I guess they are nutritionally balanced by the cabbage, almonds and sesame seeds.

I'm so happy you're taking the time to comment on Kalyn's Kitchen! I love hearing from people who stop by, especially if you're sharing feedback or asking questions about a recipe I've posted here.

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